Mariners, Seahawks, Sonics, Canucks, and any other sports tidbits we deem to be worthy. Or other stuff.All this from the minds of two former residents of the humble town of Bremerton, Washington.Cast: David (Bremerton WA), Jeremy (2003-2007).(post times Pacific, like Bremerton)

Saturday, August 21, 2004

CARLOS IN CHARGE

I have to admit, I didn't see the whole game. Of course, when I turned the radio on toward the latter innings and learned the score was 10-10, my first thought was, "oh boy, that's going to take a while to recap..." My second thought: two teams scored 10 runs each in a game at Comerica Park??!!

It turns out two Carloses were in charge for the Tigers tonight. Carlos Guillen would end up with 6 RBI, and Carlos Pena would end up with a 3-for-5 day.

Even more amazing in this game is that the Mariners managed to put 10 runs up on the board while basically punting four out of the nine slots in their lineup (Scott Spiezio, Dan Wilson, Ramon Santiago, Willie Bloomquist). To their credit, they went a combined 7-for-20 tonight. To the credit of all the naysayers of the group of for (myself included), 7-for-20 out of those four will never happen again. I defy anyone to find a Major League starting lineup hitters that has four worse hitters than these. What makes this worse is that Bob Melvin might see this output from these four and then decide they need more playing time. Ugh. Again, of those four players, why two of them are even in the starting lineup is a question to me, while I wonder why the other two are even collecting Major League paychecks right now.

The Mariners didn't wait long to score. Ichiro tripled on the second pitch of the game and scored on Randy Winn's single (SEA 1-0). Winn would take second on a Jason Johnson balk, but would be stranded there after a Raul Ibanez flyout and a Bucky Jacobsen groundout.

Jamie Moyer pitched a scoreless bottom of the 1st, though quite a contentious one. With one out, Jamie fell behind 3-0 on Bobby Higginson and walked him two pitches later. Jamie then walked Ivan Rodriguez on four pitches. Damage control was exercised when Dmitri Young bounced out to third and Rondell White bounced out to short.

Scott Spiezio led off the 2nd with a triple. Four horsemen and the rapture followed. Okay, maybe not. Wilson hit a fly ball to score Spiezio (SEA 2-0). Bloomquist ran out an infield single and went to second on a Santiago single. Bloomquist was plated on an Ichiro single (SEA 3-0). Roberto Novoa came in to pitch at this point, as Jason Johnson was pulled for what was later revealed to be a mild left hip strain. Winn flew out (Santiago moved to third). Ichiro stole second on the 1-1 pitch to Bret Boone, but then Boone bounced to short.

In the Tigers' half of the 2nd, Craig Monroe reached when Santiago made a throwing error (I did actually see this part; I think he pulled Spiezio off the bag). Two trends that were working against Jamie Moyer at this point: (1) his propensity this year for giving up the long ball, (2) his inability to solve Carlos Pena. Carlos Pena hit a 2-run bomb to the bullpens in rightfield on a pitch that was up in the strike zone and right over the plate (SEA 3-2). Moyer got Brandon Inge to whiff before Omar Infante scratched out a single. The Moyer did his best Ron Villone impression, throwing six straight balls. Higginson walked on four straight, and Moyer fell behind 2-0 on Rodriguez. Ivan ended up lining a hot shot toward Bloomquist at third, and the ball ate him up. He appeared to be on one knee trying to snare the ball high to his backhand side, and it scooted past him. The score was tied. Dmitri Young whiffed to end the inning.

The Mariners' 3rd inning featured an Ibanez leadoff homer and not much else to give Seattle the lead again (SEA 4-3). It went quite a few rows back in rightcenter, in the area were the seats make a sort of triangle toward the field. Jamie Moyer responded by having a 1-2-3 inning.

The Mariners' 4th inning had a couple more tantalizing extra-base hits. Randy Winn hit a one-out homer to rightfield (SEA 5-3). Ibanez walked one out later, and he came home on a Bucky Jacobsen double to the wall in center (SEA 6-3).

Then the Tigers came a-prowlin' in the 5th. Rodriguez singled after being down 0-2. Young singled after being up 2-0. Rondell White followed up with a single of his own. Yep, three straight singles to start the inning. Not good. Up came Carlos Guillen, who wiped the bases clean with a double to tie the game at 6-6. Guillen then stole third on the 0-1 pitch to Monroe, who would ground out to third. Guillen would score on a single by the other Carlos to get the Tigers the lead (Pena, DET 7-6). In came Shigetoshi Hasegawa (again, what rationale is behind this decision?), who got a groundball double play out of Brandon Inge to end the inning. Moyer's lackluster line: 4 1/3 innings, 5 runs, 9 hits, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, 99 pitches (61 strikes). Not good.

The Mariners would toll the bell in the 6th off ex-Angel Al Levine. Ichiro doubled to lead off, and went to third when Randy Winn beat out the throw on a bunt. Bret Boone dinked one into leftcenter to score Ichiro and tie the game at 7-7. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Ibanez stung a ball to Pena at first for a 3-unassisted double play. Bucky grounded out to Guillen to end the inning.

So then Bob Melvin leaves Hasegawa in the game, which is now tied going into the bottom of the 6th. How would Shig start the inning off? Four-pitch walk to Omar Infante. Higginson flew out to right, but Rodriguez singled to put runners on the corners. Young bounced a ball to first, which Infante tried to score on and was unsuccessful (3-2 fielder's choice). Runners were on first and second with two out. Hasegawa fell behind 3-0 on White, and walked him on a full count. Up came Carlos Guillen again, for the second time with the bases loaded. Once again, it was the same result: bases-clearing double (DET 10-7). Monroe would line out to Boone to mercifully end the inning and mercifully end Shigetoshi Hasegawa's night on the mound.

But the Mariners weren't done scoring yet. Gary Knotts went to the mound for the Tigers in the 7th. Two things coming to mind at the mention of Gary Knotts: Don Knotts, Knotts Berry Farm. With one out, Wilson got aboard on an infield single, and Bloomquist followed with an outfield single. Edgar Martinez followed with a pinch-hit (for Santiago, a no-brainer) single to load the bases and get pinch-ran for by Jose Lopez. It was a great time for Ichiro to come to the plate. Esteban Yan was brought into the game, and Ichiro legged out an infield single on the first pitch (DET 10-8). Winn would double on the second pitch to rightfield to tie the game at 10-10. Runners were on second and third with one out. Boone whiffed, Ibanez was walked, and Bucky whiffed.

George Sherrill threw two scoreless innings (7th and 8th). Brandon Inge drew a one-out walk in the 7th, and managed to get himself to third via a steal and a wild pitch while Higginson was up with two out. In the 8th, Sherrill's only blemish was the Rodriguez leadoff single. All in all, an okay outing from Sherrill, and it thankfully wasn't Thornton-esque.

Ugueth Urbina and Scott Atchison traded scoreless 9th and 10th innings. Urbina allowed a little two-out false hope when he walked Winn in the 9th. Winn stole second and Rodriguez uncorked a wild throw to second, advancing Winn to third. Atchison's 9th was 1-2-3. Urbina allowed a one-out walk to Bucky after a 10-pitch at-bat in which Bucky fouled off five pitches. Bucky was lifted for pinch-runner Jolbert Cabrera. Atchison allowed a one-out Higginson singled in an otherwise nondescript 10th.

Jamie "Dyn-o-mite" Walker took the mound for the Tigers in the 11th. Lopez singled. Ichiro flew out. Winn singled to move Lopez to third. Boone whiffed.

Atchison came on for a third inning of work. White led off with a single. Guillen didn't hit a bases-clearing double this time; instead he beat out a double-play throw. He stole second on the 0-1 pitch to Monroe. On the sixth pitch with a 1-2 count, Monroe singled to center, his only hit of the game after a 4-for-5 outing the night before. But tonight, he hit the gamer (DET 11-10). The single was to center, after all, and Randy Winn did have to field the ball.

In the blown leads competition, the Mariners blew 3-0 and 6-3 leads, while the Tigers blew a 10-7 lead.

Gameball: Randy Winn. 5-for-6 with three singles, a double, and a homer, racking up 4 RBI. What a night for the slap-hitting fast-but-not-that-fast centerfielder.

Goat: Jamie Moyer. I know Hasegawa was crap (ugh). However, there's certain things that this team (though we know the season is long lost) depends on, and Jamie Moyer coming out every five days is looked at as a legitimate chance (moreso than others) to get the Mariners a rare win. It's not going to happen when Moyer can't get out of the 5th and gives up five runs in the process. If Hasegawa would have blown up earlier, Moyer could have gotten tagged with another run.

If the Mariners get swept by the Tigers in Detroit tomorrow, is there any way we can call this a Cat Scratch Flu or something? It'd be beyond a mere fever.

Koren Robinson made his first catch of the preaseason, hauling in a 45-yard pass from Seneca Wallace in front of Champ Bailey. The Robinson catch was the big play on the 'Hawks first scoring drive that led to a Josh Brown 28-yard field goal.

As for the 'Hawks defense, they didn't allow the Broncos to reach the end zone in the 1st half. But Jake Plummer was 12-of-21 for 103 yards. He will most likely be replaced in the 2nd half. Quinton Griffin ran for 55 yards on 14 carries. If this were a regular season game, I'd be banging my head against the wall right now. But thank God this is only preseason. I'm sure Ray Rhodes will have this defense ready for New Orleans Sept. 12.

The most important part of the game so far is that nobody has gotten hurt as far as players go. However, there was an older gentleman on the Seahawks sideline that had to be taken off the field by EMTs. Hopefully he will be OK.

Go 'Hawks. Stay healthy. And stay classy.

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 8:40 PM

I....HATE....THIS.....TOO!!!

Too close to hate?

Perhaps.

But dammit, who in their right mind decided to change up the Coors Light "Here's To Football" commercial? The new version features Rich Eisen, John Elway, Jillian Barberie, Richard Perry, and Bruce Smith. It's just beyond horrible.

Oh, and I've just heard that Bills RB Travis Henry went down tonight in Buffalo with an undisclosed injury. This could mean that Willis McGahee may get his chance to start. But as of right now, Henry's condition is unknown.

Let's just pray that the Seahawks don't suffer any key injuries this preseason.

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 6:40 PM

EMBARASSING

I only caught the last 4 minutes of the U.S.-Lithuania basketball game today, but needless to say, it looks like I didn't miss much.

I just have one question about this whole deal: WHY IN THE BLUE HELL IS STEPHON MARBURY ON THIS TEAM? Bill Simmons had a much better take on this a few weeks ago. But seriously, there's no legitimate reason as to why Starbury is on this damn team.

Anyways, as for the Olympics story that I really care about:

Congrats Tara. Bremertonians, past and present, are proud of you. I'll definitely hit on this as time allows in the next few days.

Programming Note: The Seahawks will play their second preseason game tonight at Qwest Field against the Broncos. Gametime is 7:05. For those in the Seattle area, you'll get to hear the dulcitones of Verne Lundquist on the television broadcast. Yes, I'm interested in preseason football. At this point, any football is good. Mack Strong has the night off, which translates to "he is a lock for this team".

Oh, and the Eagles are one play away from having to go to Reno Mahe. Yikes.

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 5:40 PM

OLYMPIC UPDATE

If you don't want to know how the USA women's 4x100 medley relay did today, do the "page down" thing a couple times and scroll past this post.

The USA women's 4x100 medley relay team finished second to the Australians , who set a world record time of 3:57.32. Team USA finished with a 3:59.12 (raw results).

What this means is that the final team in the event for the USA (Natalie Coughlin/Amanda Beard/Jenny Thompson/Kara Lynn Joyce) as well as the qualifying team (Haley Cope/Tara Kirk/Rachel Komisarz/Amanda Weir) all walk away with silver medals. The final four got their medals at the podium, whereas the qualifiers will apparently have theirs mailed.

Sterling silver it is.

Way to go, Team USA.

Way to go, Tara Kirk.

/

post written by David, published at 4:02 PM

Friday, August 20, 2004

CROWN OF THORNS

I pegged an over/under the other night of 5 2/3 innings for Ron Villone's start, which would have been last night. Bob Melvin stuck with the sequence though, and pushed everyone back a day. Villone ended up going six innings, exceeding my expectations by one out.

Villone looked halfway decent through the first 2 2/3 innings. Of course, that's not very long for a starting pitcher, if you indeed want to call Villone a starting pitcher. He started losing control in the third. He got Omar Infante to bounce out for the second out of the inning, but had fallen behind him 2-0. Villone went 3-0 on the next two hitters (Bobby Higginson, Ivan Rodriguez) and walked them both. Luckily for him, he got Dmitri Young to fly out and end the inning.

In the top of the 4th, Ichiro legged out his second infield single of the game (all three of his hits tonight were of the infield variety). Randy Winn bunted (booooo) Ichiro over. Edgar Martinez was caught looking, and Bret Boone bounced out to the shortstop. End of threat.

In the Tiger half of the 4th, Ron Villone would pick up where he left off. He threw six straight balls to start off, with Rondell White drawing the four-pitch walk. After 50 pitches, Villone had thrown 25 strikes and 25 balls (says the TV broadcast). Craig Monroe (who would go 4-for-5) got 2-0 and 3-1 counts (always favorable) and eventually singled. On the 1-0 pitch to Carlos Pena, Miguel Olivo didn't reach far enough to catch the high-and-away pitch, which went off his glove and to the backstop. The runners moved into scoring position. Two pitches later, Brandon Inge would plate White (DET 1-0). Three pitches later, Jason Smith would ground to short and plate Monroe (DET 2-0). Villone fell behind 2-0 to Omar Infante before getting a flyout. Okay, we know Miguel Olivo's a crappy defensive catcher. We know having the two runners move into scoring position isn't good. Of course, we also know that throwing six straight balls to start the inning isn't good. In short, don't pin those two runs solely on Miguel. Villone had to be at least partially craptastic for those two runners to get on base in the first place.

The Mariners would cut the lead in half in the 5th. Miguel Olivo doubled with two out, and came home on a Jolbert Cabrera single (DET 2-1).

The Mariners would tie the game in the 6th on Winn's leadoff homer to leftfield (2-2).

Then Ron Villone finished with a flourish. By that, I mean that he gave it all back. Monroe led off with a homer (DET 3-2). Carlos Pena singled, and Brandon Inge hit a ball to centerfield that Winn went back for, but should have had (the play looked like Winn circa April). Inge would wind up with a triple (DET 4-2). Inge scored on a groundout to Boone by Smith, his second RBI groundout of the game (DET 5-2).

Scott Atchison took the mound for the Mariners in the 7th. He got two quick outs from Rodriguez (popout to Bucky) and Young (whiff). White would leg out an infield single on the 9th pitch of his at-bat. Monroe got his fourth hit of the game, a single to left. Pena bounced a comebacker to the mound to end the inning. The inning could have gone a little smoother, yes, but it was brilliant compared to what we were about to see out of Matt Thornton.

But first, the Mariners weren't quite done scoring. Esteban Yan of the memorable Yan-McLemore brawl came on for the Tigers in the 8th. Ichiro reached on his third and final infield single of the game. Omar Infante had to move way over to his glove side to even get to the ball, and didn't really have a shot at Ichiro, but he threw to first anyway, and the throw was wide of the first baseman. Ichiro ended up on second, then went to third on a Winn groundout. Edgar singled (DET 5-3). For a tiny bit of false hope, Boone walked on four pitches, but then Bucky whiffed.

Now for the Matt Thornton debacle. He went 3-0 to Inge (hitting 8-hole) to leadoff. Inge would walk. Smith laid down a bunt, but beat the throw from Thornton. Infante bunted the runners over. Two pitches later, Higginson doubled down the rightfield line (DET 7-3). Two pitches after that, Rodriguez doubled to left (DET 8-3). Thornton walked Young on four pitches. The fuel was thankfully done being thrown on the fire, however, as Nook Logan (I don't know what'd be better -- if the name Nook is his given name or if it's fake) bounced into a fielder's choice and Monroe's perfect night was ruined on a Boone basket catch in foul territory.

And yeah, that was pretty much it for the night. Oh yeah, this 7-3 Tiger win was achieved without the help of one Carlos Guillen, who had the night off.

Gameball: Jolbert Cabrera. 2-for-4 with an RBI single as he was the only non-Ichiro Mariner hitter to have a multihit game tonight. That said, Ichiro's continued ballooning of his batting average is nuts, and to do it with three infield singles tonight is even more nuts. What my dad always says to me is "what if Wade Boggs had Ichiro's speed?" The mind boggles.

Goat: Matt Thornton. I want this guy to do well and everything, but I don't know if I've seen much progress. He's had a couple decent outings, but he's had a good share of craporiffic ones, too. One inning, three runs, three hits, two walks, no strikeouts, 20 pitches (10 strikes). Right now, I'm not sure what makes him better than Travis Blackley, and Blackley's not with the big club. Of course, I haven't seen Thornton get visibly ticked off on the mound, either.

Normally I try to put a line of material inbetween the goat and the starting pitchers for the next day's game, but I really don't have anything this time. I just hope Brandon Inge doesn't have an 8-for-10 series hitting eighth in the lineup for the Tigers.

Johnson. Moyer. Tomorrow.

/

post written by David, published at 8:45 PM

YET ANOTHER OLYMPIC UPDATE

I can't believe I dropped the ball on this. As opposed to the prelim/semifinal/final alignment of most of the swimming races, the women's 4x100 medley relay consists of only two qualifying heats and a final, with the top eight teams making it to the final. If you don't want to know how Tara Kirk and the rest of that relay team did at about 2am today, do the "page down" thing a couple times and scroll past this post.

The USA women's 4x100 medley relay team (Haley Cope/Tara Kirk/Rachel "Der" Komisarz/Amanda Weir) finished with a first-place qualifying time of 4:02.82. Tara Kirk held down the breaststroke leg of the race, posting the fastest time out of the 16 breaststroke swimmers in the prelims. Of course, the breaststroke field was largely different, though it did include Sarah Poewe of Germany, who finished 0.06 seconds ahead of Tara in the 100m breaststroke final. Tara's time was 0.51 seconds faster than the time she posted in the 100m breaststroke final, but apparently this isn't unusual for swimmers to do in relay races.

Granted, the relay team that swims the final race will be almost wholly different (Coughlin, Beard, et al.), but Tara still medals if the final team does.

A gold medal for Team USA, Tara Kirk, and Bremerton? Amazing.

The final in the women's 4x1 medley relay will take place tomorrow at 10:10am Pacific time. Once again, your best bet for live coverage is the CBC, though it will be the weekend, so maybe NBC has a chance to show it, who knows. The Aussies will be in lane 4, the USA will be in lane 5.

/

post written by David, published at 12:53 PM

RANDOM

There is some actual material to this post, sports related.

-- The Mariners and Royals will make up their game that was postponed yesterday. However, it will be made up in Seattle as part of a doubleheader on the 29th. I think I know the reason behind it, and I think it's called $$$. In math terms, it's no game < $$ from game at KC < $$ from game at Seattle. Yes, the Mariners will have 82 home games on their schedule this year, which will screw me up for years to come when I look at home-road records for the Mariners. This will be the first doubleheader in Safeco Field history.

-- Chris Terry has a lingering shoulder problem, and will not play in tomorrow's Broncos/Seahawks preseason game. That's right, it's football at Qwest Field. I might just call it "the Q," though. Or maybe, "the Quagmire" in honor of the immortal character from Family Guy. Giggity giggity!!

-- Now, your completely random card of the day, scanned from my collection...
Of course, that card's from 1992, and he hadn't done that whole World Series MVP thing that he was going to do.

Speaking of which, the Blue Jays beat the Braves in the 1992 Series. I've hated the Braves all my life. The one thing I noticed about them this year, though, is that the hitters their numbers on the bills of their helmets, and in quite a visible fashion. The numbers are huge. I noticed the Yankees have their numbers on their bills too, but they're much smaller. The numbers on the Braves' helmets are huge. Why is this relevant? I guess it reminds me of Griffey back in the day with the huge 24 on the bill of his helmet (correct me if I'm wrong). I think the Mariners ditched this practice when they switched from the scrambled egg hats to the current duds.

Another thing about early '90s baseball cards (might still apply): I always hated when I could totally tell if the card photos were taken during spring training, i.e., the field behind looked like no Major League park, or the player was wearing some type of colored jersey that the team never wore during the regular season. It shouldn't tick me off, but it does.

I've gotta go make something of my day now. Seeya later.

/

post written by David, published at 11:01 AM

SIX WEEKS

Some of you may remember that I (David) was gone for six weeks from mid-June to late July due to the field camp required of every geology major at Central Washington University. Some of you probably wished I'd vanished forever. Alas, I remain, posting at will.

Here are a few images from the six weeks of camp. Of course, I only took one photo of camp because I sort of want to block it out of my mind.

Here's a photo of the front of the camp compound, two miles east of Mitchell, Oregon, right next to US-26. There were benches and stuff set up in front of the building, but here they were all torn down because we'd broken camp and only the professors were left. I showed my brother-in-law this picture, and he said it looked like a meth lab. The common building was where we ate and cranked out our maps. Our tents were in various places behind this building in the thicket of trees and swamp and mosquitoes, and the creek inbetween the highway and the camp. Semi trucks would lay on the horn at 3am coming down the nearby hill (there was a somewhat blind curve). The creek doubled in width during a flash flood and inundated some low-lying tents. It wasn't my idea to put the camp there. The picture's panoramic, and it'll probably mess up the entire page for a week and banish the sidebar to the bottom, but I figured someone out there might wonder.

Eighty miles to the west is the city of Bend. This photo is from the top of Pilot Butte. You can drive your car up a swirly switchback to the top. The resolution on all of these is crap, now that I think about it, but there's supposed to be Cascade peaks on the horizon.

Finally, sure to crank out some NHLers in the future, the roller hockey rink at Juniper Park in Bend.

The north goal on a rink of frying pavement.

The only way to explain this goal being tipped over is that maybe they were trying to curb scoring in the roller hockey league.

Yeah, I should have taken more pictures of the camp. Oh well. I should have taken way more sports-related photos in Bend, too. I think they have some sort of semi-pro team there, but I forgot their name already.

post written by David, published at 1:47 AM

Thursday, August 19, 2004

RAINOUT, KANSAS CITY!!!

---One song that features the word "rain" that comes to mind is Phil Collins "I Wish It Would Rain Down". Phil Collins, the coolest bald man on the planet. Yessir.

---Washington State needs Will Derting. He needs the Cougs as well. If he wants to enter the NFL Draft next spring, he has to play this season, no doubt about it. Yes, I believe Derting could be a first round pick in next year's draft. As much as I would love for the Seahawks to get him, that would require the 'Hawks to have a terrible 2004 season. So quite frankly, Derting won't be a 'Hawk. Unless he were to drop out of the first round. But what the hell am I doing on August 19 debating the 2005 NFL Draft? I'm not Mel Kiper, Jr. dammit! And I sure as hell don't prop up my hair like that man does.

---I love the Olympics. It's controlling my life. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about a full-time job at this time. But come Monday, I do have a full-time class load to worry about. Oh well. The summer had to end here sometime.

---STOP IT! STOP IT NOW! Macy Gray butchering Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" is a crime. Lock her up ASAP. Hell, lock her up just because she has one of the worst singing voices ever.

---Speaking of Olympics commercials, how about Chip from "Kate And Allie" coming out of nowhere to appear in the SBC commercials? It seems like Chip was frozen sometime in 1987 and he just now comes back to life in 2004. Why? Because he still looks like a kid.

---Do I think about these things too much? Maybe. But I find that commercial to be hysterical.

---Yes, I was forced to watch "Kate And Allie" when I was a little boy.

---Hey, at least I wasn't watching "Throb".

--- --- --- --- --- ---

To end this post with a Garbage-related note, I'm still shocked by their "Behind The Music" episode. You had to have to seen it to know what I'm talking about, because I can't come to grips with bringing up the exact subject here.

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 6:55 PM

DON'T GET PRECIPITATED

Tonight's Mariners/Royals game has been rained out. The game obviously doesn't have playoff implications. The only implications I can think of are (1) Ichiro might be screwed if he's sitting at .399 or one hit behind George Sisler after 161 games, and (2) the Justin Upton Sweepstakes. Let's root for a Kansas City winning streak, I guess.

So, I'm left wondering what the hell to do tonight, given that my usual nightly post is a roundabout game recap.

My original thoughts upon hearing of the postponement...

-- The post title. Obviously it's adapted from "don't get eliminated" at the end of every episode of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. Yes, it's that show on the Spike network, the Japanese game show with the brutal overdubs. That and the brutal injuries.

-- Songs using the word "rain." First two to come to mind were "Rain" by the Cult and "Here Comes the Rain Again" by the Eurythmics. "Love Reign Down" by Black Label Society is off by a few letters. "Only Happy When it Rains" by Garbage, well, that's what it is, along with almost all of their material.

-- It's August. It's raining enough to postpone baseball games in Kansas City, but it was sunny and kind of hot here in the Town of B today. The tables have turned.

Other non-Mariner thoughts...

-- I didn't find a way to touch on it the other day, but the return of Kayla Burt to the Husky women's basketball team is a great story, to say the least. She plans to be back, playing with a defibrillator, for the first time since her New Year's Eve 2002 episode of cardiac arrest.

-- Will Derting's got a dislocated wrist. To say the Cougs' defense needs him badly this year would be an understatement.

-- Nolan Baumgartner is back with the Canucks for another year. Well, with the Canucks or Manitoba. He was up with the big club for nine games last year.

/

post written by David, published at 6:13 PM

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

FRANKLIN BUCKED OVER

Tonight's start by Ryan Franklin evoked instant memories for me of a game I saw with Jeremy and friend Grant back in 2000. We saw Freddy Garcia gassing up his SUV at the 76 station before the game. He had the start against the White Sox that day, facing Sean Lowe. Garcia gave up two runs over eight innings and was tagged with the loss that day. Today, Ryan Franklin gave up three runs over eight innings and lost. While he didn't get the win tonight, what he does get is credit from me for saving the bullpen.

The Mariners tonight were stifled by yet another no-name, this one by the name of Jimmy Serrano. The first two things that come to mind when hearing the name Serrano: number 1 is Wascar, and number 2 is Pedro. "Pedro" Serrano is hilarious on multiple levels here, considering the Mariners' history with no-name starting pitchers. That other level...come on, you know.

The Mariners had a scoring opportunity in the 1st. Randy Winn hit a one-out double, but Bret Boone flew out to second and Raul Ibanez lined out to the rightfielder.

Then came the biggest headline of the night. With one out in the 3rd, Serrano threw a ball that seemed headed for some part of Ichiro. Ichiro didn't seem to pick it up quickly enough. He did manage to turn away, but the pitch appeared to hit him pretty squarely in the back of his (helmet-covered) head. It wasn't a very glancing blow. Ichiro was laying prone on the ground next to the batters' box for a few minutes as the trainers did the requisite tests. Ichiro was able to walk on his two feet again, and was pulled from the game. Hiram Bocachica took his spot in rightfield. For the record, Ryan Franklin brushed back Andres Blanco with a pitch in the bottom half of the 3rd. Both benches were warned.

In the 4th, Boone singled on an 0-2 pitch. Ibanez drew a walk. Bucky Jacobsen bounced into a double play, and Jolbert Cabrera bounced out to second. No one scored.

In the Royals' half of the 6th, John Buck doubled on the first pitch with one out. Franklin had set down 15 straight Royals, going back to David DeJesus' leadoff single in the 1st. Blanco bounced out to Scott Spiezio (once again, why is he playing?) at first, moving Buck to third. Buck scored on a David DeJesus single as the Royals drew first blood (KC 1-0). Surely many fans have gotten used to having that sinking feeling whenever it's a low-scoring game, Ryan Franklin is on the mound, and the opposing team takes the lead. No exception here.

But wait. In the top of the 7th, Bucky hit a one-out single. Jolbert Cabrera got under a pitch that appeared to be just a fly ball to leftfield. Aaron Guiel seemed like he had a beat on the ball. He was going to catch the ball. Then the ball bounced off the top of the wall and into the bullpen (SEA 2-1). Ryan Franklin would pitch once again with the lead when the bottom of the inning came. After the Cabrera homer, Spiezio doubled (huh?) to rightfield. Dan Wilson whiffed and Lopez bounced out to short. Franklin responded to his new lead by throwing a 1-2-3 7th.

Ryan Franklin had 86 pitches heading into the 8th inning. He got Guiel to whiff. Desi Relaford singled to rightfield. Franklin had suppressed his longball tendencies for 7 1/3 innings. Then John Buck got a hold of one to leftcenter (KC 3-2). Hey, at least if the Mariners didn't score in their half of the 9th, they wouldn't have to burn the bullpen for an inning, right? Score they didn't.

Gameball: Ryan Franklin. Ryan lets the bullpen rest for a day, and even manages to get his ERA to drop. Yes, it was 8 innings, 3 runs, 5 hits, no walks (always a plus), and two strikeouts. Unfortunately, there was also the costly home run to drop his pathetic record to 3-12. Ouch, people. Ouch.

Goat: Dan Wilson. 0-for-3. A fielders' choice, a GIDP, and a whiff. To translate, he had runners on board every time he got up. Adding to the badness, if Scott Spiezio manages to get on base twice ahead of you, you've got to take advantage of that at least once.

But the last two days' doings by Bobby Madritsch and Ryan Franklin have set up the bullpen beautifully for when Ron Villone does his thing tomorrow. If there was an over-under, I think I'd set it at 5 2/3 innings.

Well, the Mariners weren't able to put 3 wins together in a row. I guess that means that the Optimist is still in hiding. But who knows, he may come back soon to talk Rice football. The Fighting Ken Hatfields! Just joking, Corey. We could use your insights into this team right now.

Villone. Mike Wood. Tomorrow.

He's still untouchable.

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 7:35 PM

ANNUM SMASHING

That was my second or third try at a semi-witty title for my observance of the first anniversary of Sports and Bremertonians. The other legitimate try was "Year of the Boomerang" which, though a very cool Rage song, would not have really made much sense. If we reverted all the way back to how we were posting in the beginning, well, I don't know if I'd quite feel as much redemptive qualities out of this one year of blogging. The second one that came to mind, that there was no way in hell I was going to use, involved a really crappy Third Eye Blind song. I know the related question there is "what Third Eye Blind song isn't crappy?" The third idea would have been something branched off of Iron Maiden's "Wasted Years." What did I stick with? Latin mixed with chemistry and superconductors, I guess. That's my insane convoluted mind for you, which I'm sure regular readers have come to know.

One year ago on August 17th is when we started this thing. One of my first posts was on one of Freddy's good starts from the second half of last season. Part of the impetus for the weblog was last year's trade deadline. Even though there really weren't too many high-end guys available at the deadline, I was soooo ready this time (you think I'd learn from the past three years) for the Mariners to make a move. I had Anthro 314 class that day, and I was going to sprint back to my apartment on my bike (class got off just before 1pm) so I could turn on the special episode of Baseball Tonight and chat with Jeremy about whatever would end up happening. I was sitting there in the Anthro class -- boring as hell, lame-duck drunk teacher, not sure how I got an A in it -- drawing up how my prospective Mariner lineups would look like. One had Tony Batista (let's face it, anyone was an upgrade to Jeff Cirillo at that point), and the other had Ryan Klesko (I forgot who I was sending in a Klesko trade though). I had the lineups drawn up, the defensive alignment; I was juiced up.

The Mariners won their afternoon game that day, with Joel Pineiro throwing three-hit ball over seven shutout innings against the Tigers, with a weird 6/6 K/BB ratio. The next day, the White Sox came to town. In case you forgot, Freddy Garcia was absolutely torched that day. He was viciously booed off the mound after failing to get out of the 2nd inning. He was tagged for seven runs, and gave up two homers and two bombs. If there was any one time where Freddy decided he wanted out of Seattle, it had to be that day. That day also brought rampant "they should have traded him when they could have gotten something for him" talk. It wasn't just that, though. This was Pat Gillick helping his wife move on the one day when he's supposed to earn his money. Again. And this team needed some help to jumpstart it. Again. Alas, nothing happened. No, I'm not counting Rey Sanchez (the need is blatantly obvious if someone gets injured, but mysteriously wasn't obvious when everyone was sucking).

The Mariners would spend the next two weeks pre-Sports and B's getting beat by the likes of Jake Westbrook, Billy Traber, and Mark Hendrickson.

Then Sports and B's was born as an outlet to all our rage, though we knew we'd eventually talk other sports.

As Jeremy mentioned earlier, the August 17th game featured the Rafael Soriano mow-down of Nomar Garciaparra, the last marquee point of the 2003 season. The Mariners took the first game of the road trip in Toronto, then lost the two remaining games of the series and got swept in a four-game series in Boston. Cameron's non-catch of the Kevin Millar fly ball at the wall in centerfield in the 10th was pretty much the death of the season. The next two games were the nails in the coffin, 6-1 and 8-1 losses to Derek Lowe and Pedro (who "wasn't going to pitch").

I still can't believe to this day that the 2003 Mariners started out 42-19. Just can't. Their record the rest of the way (quick math): 51-50. Like the Van Halen album and the police code it represents, 101 games of .500 ball after 61 games of .689 ball just about made me go insane. The team weathered Giovanni Carrara and Jeff Cirillo sucking, but it couldn't weather Kazu Sasaki's "rib injury," Arthur Rhodes' injury that he never went on the DL for, Freddy losing his mind, and Ichiro's golden second half. I didn't even mention Rondell White.

Then Gillick pissed off Edgar on September 24th. For me, Gillick was dead to me as the GM at that point, until they hired Bill Bavasi. Ugh.

So yeah, since I think I have to end it somewhere, that's a big part of what happened in the infancy of this here humble weblog. I think Peter of Mariner Musings was one of the first to link us (for which we're perpetually grateful), and eventually the Mariner blogosphere spread bigtime (and we were linked in more places) around November and December of 2003.

What's happened since? Well, the Sonics ticked me off to the point where I didn't cover them game to game (I'll try my hardest not to end up doing that this year), the Canucks had a weird year (but one that I obviously was interested in), and Al Harris ripped out the hearts of Seahawk fans across the northwest. The Mariners made boneheaded moves in the offseason, ticking us off as well as most of our blogosphere compadres. The Husky men's basketball team had an improbable run (incidentally, with one-time Bremertonian Curtis Allen). The Mariners started out brutally, and never recovered. But the extreme (and welcome) contrast to the Mariners' woes came in the form of four Bremerton athletes making national news. Not only did it make us proud, it meant to us that for once it wasn't somebody from North Kitsap (Sele, Fenton, etc.) or South Kitsap (Bloomquist, Newell, etc.) or anywhere else in the county getting the press, it was one (make that four) of our own.

And here we stand just past the one-year mark here at Sports and Bremertonians. I don't want this ride to end.

Thanks to our readers, the Mariner blogosphere, and those that have linked us. Thanks to my partner in crime, Jeremy, without whom this weblog would be wholly monotonous and rambling.

It's been one year, y'all. Here's to many more...

/

post written by David, published at 1:14 AM

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

BASHED BALLS, BEANBALLS, BROKEN FINGERS

There were some unusual things that happened in the first Mariners/Royals tilt of this three game series in Kansas City. The Mariners had the big inning, and they had it early. They added on to the lead. Four beanballs were thrown in the game. A pitcher was pulled with a 2-0 count on the batter he was facing. Two Mariners were perfect at the plate and accounted for 9 of the Mariners' 20 hits. Shigetoshi Hasegawa was brought in, and I didn't even feel like yelling at Bob Melvin for putting him into the game.

Ah, to face the glorified triple-A team known as the 2004 Kansas City Royals.

Bobby Madritsch had his least sharpest start so far. As I've feared on occasion, when Bobby misses the strike zone, he tends to miss high. Of course, against a team as crummy as the Royals, the repercussions aren't as great.

Ichiro homered on the second pitch into the bullpen in rightfield to lead off the game (SEA 1-0). Madritsch responded by throwing a 1-2-3 1st.

Then came an offensive flourish. Raul Ibanez and Bucky Jacobsen led off with a single and a double to the wall in centerfield. Miguel Olivo grounded out to about-to-be-shellacked Darrell May. Justin Leone drew a walk to load the bases. Jose Lopez hit a dinker to move everyone up 90ft (SEA 2-0). Ichiro served a two-run single into right (SEA 4-0). Randy Winn hit a two-run triple to right (SEA 6-0, I seem to remember someone either misplaying the ball in the outfield or an outfielder falling down on the play). Edgar followed with a ball to the wall in leftcenter, which he tried to stretch into a double. He was out by a mile at second, but Winn scored (SEA 7-0). Bret Boone, the 9th man to come to the plate in the inning, bounced out to short.

Now pitching with a 6-run lead, Madritsch surrendered singles to Ken Harvey and Abraham Nunez to lead off the Royals' half of the 2nd. Madritsch walked hyped-Ranger-prospect-of-lore Ruben Mateo to load the bases with nobody out. Madritsch got Desi Relaford to bounce into a 5-3 double play (SEA 7-1). It's a shame the bases had to be loaded with nobody out, but that was some damage control right there.

The runs kept a-comin' for the Mariners. Ibanez and Jacobsen started a shorter hit parade in the 3rd, with a double and single. Bucky singled to left, so Ibanez had to hold at third. Former Minnesota Twin Matt Kinney (I believe he used to wear these computer dork-type glasses on the mound in his Twins days) was put in for the brutally ineffective Darrell May. Miguel Olivo (whiff) and Justin Leone (flyout to second) practiced exercises in futility. Jose Lopez was beaned to load the bases. Ichiro hit a two-run single (SEA 9-1)...what's new?

Madritsch got two quick outs in the 3rd, but started losing control. Joe Randa and Ruben Gotay (four pitches) drew walks, and Ken Harvey dove over the plate (as many hitters do) and took a pitch in his right elbow. Madritsch had loaded the bases for the second straight inning before inducing a Nunez groundout to end the threat.

A weird play occurred in the Royals' half of the 4th. Desi Relaford was on board with a four-pitch walk. With two out, Andres Blanco hit a ball that Bret Boone had to move a long way to his glove side to get. He didn't have a chance to nail Blanco, but attempted one of those spinning fadeaway throws that he does. It went past Bucky at first, and Miguel Olivo was backing up the play. Relaford took off for third, and Blanco took off for second. Olivo gunned the ball to second base and nailed Blanco, though I thought Blanco had the throw beat. If he's out, Blanco's leg must have come off the bag or something while he was sliding into and over it with the rest of his leg.

Boone smashed a ball beyond the 410 marker in centerfield with one out in the 6th (SEA 10-1). Matt Kinney would allow an Ibanez single, and would get Bucky to whiff. He threw one wild pitch to Olivo to move Ibanez to second. He threw another ball before the trainer came out and Kinney was pulled with a calf cramp. In came Jorge Vasquez, who threw two strikes, and then uncorked a wild one of his own on a 2-2 pitch to move Ibanez to third. He beaned Olivo with the next pitch. No fear, though. Willie Bloomquist was pinch-hitting for Justin Leone, who at this point was nursing the back of his hand after it was nailed by a Matt Kinney pitch. Four pitches and a whiff. Madritsch responded to his extra run of support with a 1-2-3 6th.

Here come more runs. Ichiro drew a one-out walk. Winn hit into a fielder's choice. Edgar singled to put runners on the corners. Bret Boone hit a bomb to leftcenter which he wasn't sure was a homer; he thought the outfielder had brought it back. Nope, it was a homer. Nice to see a little power from Bret, finally (SEA 13-1). Ibanez and Bucky would form another hitting tandem, this time with a single and double. Olivo hit a ball to Blanco at short which was muffed (SEA 14-1). Bloomquist whiffed.

Madritsch had 96 pitches after six innings of work. I was pleasantly surprised he was trotted out there for the 7th, though I knew full well that the season is lost, it's late in the season, and Bobby had a mere 13-run lead at that point. He got John Buck to ground out on the second pitch. He walked Andres Blanco on five pitches. I was waiting for Bob Melvin to come out with the hook, but he didn't. Madritsch got a key strikeout on a devil of a 2-2 changeup to David DeJesus. Joe Randa then singled to put runners on the corners. Again, no hook (I'm surprised again). Six pitches later, Gotay flew out to Bucky.

As I said earlier, it was the least sharp of Madritsch's starts so far. Somehow, though, he stretched it out to seven innings. That's the rockiest seven innings of one-run ball I've seen a pitcher throw in a while. His line: 7 innings, 1 run, 5 hits, 5 walks (yikes!), 4 strikeouts, 119 pitches (72 strikes).

Holy crap!! Shigetoshi Hasegawa was put into a situation that is perfected suited for him!! He threw a 1-2-3 8th inning! Remember when these were the only types of situations where we wanted Kevin Jarvis to throw? For Melvin to Throw in the Towel? Ah, good times, bad times. You know I've had my share.

More runs. Ibanez drew a two-out walk from Jaime Cerda and reached base for the sixth time in the game. Bucky hit a ball to Desi Relaford at third, who hurried the throw to first even though Bucky's not the fastest guy. Wilton Guerrero, a.k.a. Vlad Guerrero's Frank Stallone, couldn't come up with the throw. Olivo singled on the first pitch (SEA 15-1). Even Bloomquist singled on the first pitch (SEA 16-1), the official sign that yes, this game was indeed out of hand.

Clint Nageotte was brought on for the 9th. He wouldn't walk anybody, but the results weren't that great either. With one out, John Buck (a.k.a. Beltran bait) and Blanco hit back-to-back one-out singles. DeJesus bounced out to first, moving the runners. Nageotte surrendered a single to Guerrero/Stallone (SEA 16-2). Nageotte threw a wild pitch on the 0-1 pitch to Gotay, scoring Blanco (SEA 16-3). He would get Gotay to whiff, however. Nageotte has an outing that is predominately ineffective, with flashes of that cool breaking ball.

Gameball: Raul Ibanez. 5-for-5 with a walk. One might wonder why I chose Ibanez even though he had zero RBIs. Raul led off two innings with hits, had a two-out bases-empty hit, and got two hits after Boone had homered. I'm not Raul's biggest fan, and I hate his contract to death, but if he doesn't get a gameball tonight, he's never getting one. Also kudos to Bucky, who hit behind Raul, going 3-for-5 with a walk and two doubles (yay for extra-base hits!)

Goat: Miguel Olivo. 1-for-5 with a strikeout and RBI, stranding six. This is mostly on the basis that it has to be somebody tonight, and that he stranded the most runners.

You know Justin Leone's hand I was talking about earlier? Two fingers were broken on that Matt Kinney beanball. He'll be out 4-6 weeks. Greg Dobbs, anyone?

One trouncing of a win, but pretty costly for the Mariners' newbie third baseman. Bret Boone has some pop in that bat after all. Raul Ibanez can hit in Kansas City, which didn't surprise me because three years isn't a small sample size. Ichiro can hit, this we know. What I know is that all this second-half hitting would have been nice LAST YEAR. But damn, that guy is the best singles hitter walking the earth right now. I miss all those doubles into the gap, Ichi.

/

post written by David, published at 11:46 PM

'HAWKS 16, CHIEFS 3

That's Mariners 16, Royals 3, for the few of you who couldn't get that.

Anyways, that's not what I'm going to talk about. My slogan for the 2004 Mariners is "When you win, you lose". Well, it's so fitting for this team that it isn't even funny.

Justin Leone is out 4-6 weeks with two broken fingers on his left hand after being hit by a pitch in the 5th inning. Guess what? We get to see a bunch of Willie Bloomquist and Ramon Santiago the rest of the 2004 season! (Santiago will be called up from Tacoma, I guarantee it)

But all isn't bad in Mariner land tonight. Bobby Madritsch was able to pitch without sleeves tonight and was solid, allowing just 1 run in 7 innings. I like this guy, I really do. Hopefully he can keep this up, because the M's are going to need him in 2005.

David will most likely have more on the game later. I don't want to steal too much of his thunder, heh.

WHEN YOU WIN, YOU LOSE: The story of the 2004 Seattle Mariners. Available at all Lowe's locations during the holiday season. Get all of that!

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 11:20 AM

ANOTHER OLYMPIC UPDATE -- DANA KIRK

Once again, if you don't want to know how Dana Kirk did in her 200m butterfly semifinal swim around 10am, then hit "page down" a couple times and scroll past this post.

First, thanks to the CBC for airing this live. Dana Kirk has finished fourth in her 200m butterfly semifinal heat with a time of 2:10.69. Unfortunately, the cut time was 0.22 seconds faster. Dana was ninth out of the 16 semifinalist swimmers, with the top eight advancing to the finals. As for the race, Dana had a hold on second early, and third probably until there were 25m left, when Kaitlin Sandeno (USA) caught up to her first, followed by Paola Cavallino (ITA) about 5-10m before the finish.

In my best impersonation of an analysis of Tara's final race the other day, I said Tara went from third to sixth in the final 2-3m, then saying the finish was pretty "muddled," because everything happened pretty fast. According to David Nielsen in the Bremerton Sun, "[t]he difference between Tara Kirk earning a medal Monday and placing sixth was the length of a hand. The margin was less than the time it takes to blink an eye." Basically, my margin was somewhat correct, but my guess of 2-3m is a lot of hand lengths. I knew it was close, but obviously I didn't guess it was quite that close. Sorry I short-changed you there, Tara.

Again, great job by Tara and Dana Kirk in their Olympic journey. Also, Tara will swim for the USA 4x100 medley relay team in the preliminary race, but Amanda Beard will probably will take the breaststroke spot if the relay team advances, based on her finish in the 100m breaststroke final. Regardless, everyone who swims on the relay team -- be it in the preliminaries, semifinals, or finals -- gets medals. The USA women have gotten gold medals in this event in each of the last three Games. So, Tara could still get a medal out of this.

Bremerton -- the place where dreams are made. I never thought I'd say that.

/

post written by David, published at 10:38 AM

WOWNESS, IT'S BEEN ONE YEAR

Well, I'll be damned. Today is the one-year anniversary of Sports and Bremertonians. Simply stunning.

I remember August 17, 2003 very well, not only because of the Sports and B's launch but because on that day, it was the last great moment we've seen from Rafael Soriano. He struck out Nomar Garciaparra on three pitches. You could also say that it was the last great moment for the Mariners as well. After that day, the Mariners went downhill in a hurry, although the demise was already starting.

A year later, we've come to find out that Soriano will have Tommy John surgery, sidelining him until 2006. It's amazing how different the Mariners' fortunes have turned out in just 12 calendar months. But if you read our work and the other bloggers' material during the offseason, you could have seen this coming. Or not. Nobody expected this team to fall off as much as they did. I know I didn't. But it happened.

I'd like to thank each and every one of our readers for coming to Sports and Bremertonians. Because of our readers, I've been able to comment on various topics, including music lists and the "Madden Curse" (see my insane post from Saturday). This isn't just a sports blog. This is an escape.

From Day One, David and I knew this was going to be fun. We've strived not to talk politics at all. We'll leave that to the other bloggers. We just want to talk about sports, music, and other stuff that entertains us. I've always had an opinion, so this is a great outlet for me. Hopefully in a few years, my stage will be even bigger, once I get my degree.

The name of this blog is "Sports and Bremertonians". It gives us free reign to talk about ANYTHING in the sports world. This isn't just a Mariners blog. Nor is it just a Seahawks blog. It's a sports blog, with a Seattle sports twist. This fall, I'll definitely hit on more Arkansas-related sports issues. Which means that I'll try to promote this blog more in the Natural State.

Anyways, thanks for reading our material on a daily basis. Or on a weekly basis. Or on a monthly basis. Whatever is the case, we thank you. Hell, if you've come to Sports and Bremertonians by hitting that new "next blog" link at the top of the Blogger pages, welcome.

Have a great day. The Dude abides.

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 8:45 AM

OLYMPIC UPDATE -- DANA KIRK

Once again, I'll put up a bunch of blank lines and you can hit page down a couple times to scroll past if you don't want to know how Dana Kirk fared in her 200m butterfly preliminary race just after 12:30am.

As far as I flipped on the dial, this one wasn't carried live. There were four heats with right swimmers each (32 total). Dana Kirk logged a time of 2:11.96 and finished third in her heat. Her time was 12th out of the 32 swimmers. Seeing as to how there's two semifinal heats left, and assuming there's eight spots in each of those heats, Dana makes the cut and will move on to the semifinal race. Media outlets have pegged Dana as a longshot to medal, and with world recordholder Otylia Jedrzejczak (Polish, I bet you anything that's three syllables) and Kaitlin Sandeno (USA) in the field, yeah, it'd be tough. Dana's time was about 2.3 seconds behind that of the Polish swimmer with the probably trysyllabic last name. My bet on the name is (phonetically, and knowing very little of the Polish language beyond Krzyzewski) YED-ray-zhak.

But hey, Dana's got two years left at Stanford, she's an Olympic semifinalist so far, and she's not done making waves, so to speak. Horrible pun, I know.

So, to cap it off, the women's 200m butterfly semifinal heats are at 9:56am and 10:02am Pacific time. If you're lucky enough to get the CBC where you're at, it's your best bet for live coverage. If not, wait for NBC or one of their family of networks. From Jeremy's experience, he's been able to get the right NBC program guides and peg the showings of the heats within a half-hour.

/

post written by David, published at 1:21 AM

Monday, August 16, 2004

TOTAL BLOGGISH POST

A part of me is almost going to miss the Google Text Ads that ran at the top of our page and all of the free Blog*Spot-hosted sites. On another note, the Blogger search navbar has done a couple of things also.

One, the new Blogger navbar at the top renders moot all of the work that I did to get that Google search deal into our sidebar (shortened the box, changed the button text, got the letters to clash with the rest of the sidebar, etc.), which sucks because although it looked somewhat ghetto, I tweaked with HTML and got the Google SiteSearch into our sidebar, and I felt proud of it and everything. Now it's nothing.

Two, the new navbar makes it so you can click "next blog" and get some totally random blog. I only found this out after I looked in our referrer logs and found completely random blogs referring to us with no apparent links to any of our material and no related material in their blogs whatsoever.

So, to anyone coming here in a completely random fashion from a completely unrelated blog, enjoy your stay, no matter how long, at Sports and B's. If you find something you like, great. If not, Sports and B's turns one year old tomorrow (Tuesday), so there's a year of material to go through to see if you like something. That's what the search bar at the top is for.

/

post written by David, published at 11:36 PM

MONDAY NIGHT PREHAWKS

SEAHAWKS 21, PACKERS 3

Sure, it is only a preseason game. But tonight, the Seahawks were ready to play. It's encouraging to see, no doubt about it.

Matt Hasselbeck played in the 1st quarter and led the Hawks on a 14-play, 68 yard drive that went 6:29, capped off by a Mack Strong 2-yard touchdown run. In his one quarter of play, Hasselbeck went 5-of-9 for 56 yards. But don't call him Mr. August anymore, folks.

Shaun Alexander ran for 10 yards on 5 carries. This is a contract year for him, so I'm expecting a huge year from the Alabama man.

Darrell Jackson had two receptions for 25 yards, including a key 16-yard catch on 3rd down on the 'Hawks first scoring drive. Needless to say, he has to catch the ball this season.

Koren Robinson didn't make the trip to Green Bay, along with Grant Wistrom, Bobby Taylor, Steve Hutchinson, and Trent Dilfer.

But for me, I was interested in seeing Jerramy Stevens. The third-year tight end out of Washington, Stevens' off-the-field troubles have plagued his career so far. If he can stay out of trouble, he will be a factor in the 'Hawks offense. Tonight, Stevens had 3 receptions for 32 yards, which led all receivers.

Seneca Wallace took over for Hasselbeck in the 2nd quarter and put himself closer to earning the #3 quarterback spot. Wallace completed 14 of 26 passes for 135 yards and 1 touchdown to Jerheme Urban, who has impressed so far in Cheney. Brock Huard did not play, due to back spasms.

After reporting to Cheney in just the past week, Marcus Tubbs made a nice impression, sacking Brett Favre in the 1st quarter. The 'Hawks need Tubbs to produce in 2004.

What really impressed me about tonight's game is the play of the offensive line during the 1st quarter. Hasselbeck didn't get sacked once, so that's a good thing. Just keep Hass healthy, please. Sure, the 'Hawks may have a Super Bowl champion as their backup QB, but that doesn't matter. If the 'Hawks are to do anything in 2004, they need a healthy Matt Hasselbeck.

Seattle is 1-0 against Green Bay in the preseason after taking a 38-21 decision on August 12, 1983. It just so happens that the last time the Seahawks played the Packers in the preseason was the last and only time the Seahawks advanced as far as the conference championship game.

Wow. I would hope that there's something to this. But we'll see.

--- --- --- --- ---

The Seahawks host the Broncos Saturday night at Qwest Field. Be cool or be cast out.

Programming note: The 2003 Seahawks NFL Yearbook will be on at 10 p.m. Pacific on ESPN 2, Midnight Central. FYI, it's the same show that is on the DVD that is currently on sale.

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 8:15 PM

MONDAY NIGHT TRENCHES

Watching the Seahawks-Packers preseason game here. I figured it's time for the second edition of (wait for it)...

The Trenches!

---Beginning later this month, Comcast will carry the NFL Network on digital cable. Too bad that I don't have Comcast. I have this sh*tty local cable company here that refuses to be bought out. Not that I'm a fan of major cable corporations, but I want the NFL Network. That's not too much to ask.

---Oakland Raiders left tackle Robert Gallery went down in practice today with a hyperextended left elbow injury. Gallery, the 2nd pick overall out of Iowa, is expected to be the Raiders' starting left tackle in 2004. The Raiders are hoping that Gallery's injury isn't too serious. Raider Nation is keeping their fingers crossed.

---The NFL Players Association filed a grieveance today against the Cowboys on behalf of quarterback Quincy Carter, who was released August 4. Carter started all 16 games for the Cowboys in 2003, where they went 10-6 and earned a wild card berth. Vinny Testaverde is currently scheduled to start for the Cowboys when the season opens September 12.

---Tight end Ben Watson is in camp with the New England Patriots. The first round pick out of Georgia switched agents late last week, citing that he wanted to get into camp ASAP. Mission accomplished. San Diego's Philip Rivers is the only holdout remaining.

---LaDainian Tomlinson signed an 8-year deal, approximately $60 million, with the Chargers this past weekend. Tomlinson has rushed for 4,564 yards and scored 37 touchdowns in his first 3 NFL seasons. He's the real deal, folks. Now if only the Chargers can fix everything else around him...

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 7:30 PM

1/2 TIME

Some notes here on the Seahawks' first half of their first preseason game, currently showing on ESPN...

-- The mere voice of Pat Summerall has kind of a calming effect. Through no fault of his, he didn't seem used to having two other guys in the booth schmoozing every once in a while. It's preseason for the broadcasters, too. Also, Pat's just warming the seat for whenever Mike Patrick comes back.

-- The second possessions for both Matt Hasselbeck and Seneca Wallace were very solid. Most elements in the offense made decent contributions, though I don't remember hearing Koren Robinson's name called. However, Darrell Jackson, Bobby Engram (a third-down catch), Mo Morris, and even Jerramy Stevens and Heath Evans got in on the act. Shaun Alexander...he runs laterally a lot. He got stuffed a few times.

-- The defense still needs work. The one play that sticks out the most in my mind was a play where the entire front seven cheated to their left, and Ahman Green ran the other way and had a big gain. I think Ken Lucas tackled him on the play.

-- It's plays like the last one and plays where no one's within five yards of the receivers that the Seahawks have to massively cut down on this year. Those and drops.

-- Marcus Tubbs had a nice play where he forced his blocker into Brett Favre.

-- Back to the offense, I forgot who caught the ball on the play I'm thinking of, but Matt Hasselbeck had all day to throw. That's a good sign for an offensive line without Steve Hutchinson and Walter Jones.

-- Seneca Wallace had a decent amount of good throws. A couple of his attempted passes were sort of suspect, and the one interception was called back.

-- Big kudos to Floyd "Pork Chop" Womack for not letting anyone blow past him and knocking out Hasselbeck for half the season. For anyone who doesn't know, co-blogger Jeremy was working at the preseason game a couple years ago when Trent Dilfer was knocked out. Not a good day for Seattle sports.

-- The numbers on the back of Kerry Carter's jersey are sewn pretty far apart. I notice these kinds of things. I need help.

-- I really want to see a connection of Seneca Wallace to Taco Wallace. I still don't think he's revealed to the media why it's Taco.

Allrighty, I guess it's time to gear up for the second half. It's also time to eat.

/

post written by David, published at 6:44 PM

SEAHAWKS/PACKERS, IT'S PRESEASON FOOTBALL

A few notes about tonight's preseason opener between the Seahawks and Packers. The game will be televised on ESPN at 7 p.m. Central.

---Matt Hasselbeck will play in the 1st quarter. I hope Pork Chop Womack does a bang-up job at left tackle. The Hawks need Hass.

---Seneca Wallace will get the majority of the playing time, as he will likely play until the 4th quarter. With a good showing, he could be the Seahawks #3 quarterback.
Brock Huard has been hurt, and if Wallace performs well, he could find himself out of a job.

---This game is not revenge for the Seahawks. It's only the preseason.

--- --- --- --- ---

The only thing that I care about during the preseason is that the Seahawks stay healthy. They can't afford any major injuries at this point.

Go Seahawks!

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 12:45 PM

THOUGHTS ON TARA

As David did, I'll go ahead and leave a few blank lines myself.

---END OF BLANK LINES---

Well damn. Unlike David, I have not been able to see the race yet. But I couldn't wait until tonight to find out the results. I'll be able to see the race on NBC sometime between 7 and 11 p.m. Central time on NBC.

Anyways, that's the beauty of the Olympics, man. The hype for this race was for Australia's Leisel Jones, Amanda Beard, and Tara. But I didn't really hear a lot of talk for China's Luo Xuejuan. Again, that's the beauty of the Olympics. Anybody can win. If you're good enough to qualify for the Games, then you definitely have a shot to win.

What's shocking to me is not just that Tara finished 6th. But the fact that not only did Jones have to settle for the Bronze, but that Beard didn't medal at all. She was too busy with her Maxim and FHM photoshoots to give a damn about this race, I think. After all, she's better in the 200m breaststroke.

As for Tara, I'm in total agreeance with David. I think she will train for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. If I know her like I do, there's no way she will settle for 6th. But who knows. Things change in people's lives.

Congrats to Tara for making it to Athens. That's quite an accomplishment. Not everybody can say that. I know I can't. I'm just a jackass with a computer in Arkansas.

We're all proud of Tara, regardless of where she finished. She's given Bremerton a renewed sense of pride. And she's given me a reason to care about the Olympics this year. The Olympic hype in the state of Arkansas is next to nothing. But in my house, the hype is tremendous right now. It's one of the few things that can bring families such as mine together.

Now it's Dana's turn. She will swim in the 200 meter butterfly on Tuesday. Best of luck to Dana.

I also would like to thank the Seattle Times, Seattle P-I, and the Bremerton Sun for their coverage. One of the many reasons why the Internet is one of the greatest inventions of our time.

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 11:30 AM

TARA KIRK UPDATE -- FINAL

I saw the 100m breaststroke final just about live on the CBC. If you want to wait until you get home and watch it on NBC to know how she did, I'll allow a bunch of blank lines right now so you can scroll past them. Just hit "page down" about three times, it should get you past.

==END OF BLANK LINES==

Tara finished sixth. How did the race go? Well, Luo Xuejuan of China was quick off the start and pretty much blew past everybody. Tara appeared to be second or third up to the 50m split, ahead of the world recordholder Leisel Jones of Australia. Nobody caught Luo from China, who easily got the gold medal. Jones was about even with Kirk with about 10m or so to go, with Tara being around third. I'm not sure if Tara just lost steam or what (wait for the post-race quotes) toward the end. I think she went from third to sixth probably within 2-3m of the wall at the end. It got pretty muddled toward the finish, other than the swimmer from China, who pretty much had the gold from the start. (results)

I'll sort of go out on a limb here and say that Tara will eventually be training for the 2008 Games in Beijing.

It's been something, it really has. Tara has made Bremerton immensely proud, and anybody that's followed this story in any capacity won't forget this anytime soon. Thanks to the CBC, NBC, for airing the races (live or delayed) and reporters Ron Judd (Seattle Times), Allen Schauffler (KING-5 Seattle), and Annette Griffus (Bremerton Sun) for their ongoing coverage.

Lastly, thanks to Tara.

/

post written by David, published at 11:08 AM

Sunday, August 15, 2004

OLYMPIC UPDATE, AND OTHER STUFF

Since now I know it's aired on the west coast, I can finally say to you all (without spoiling everything for you) that Tara Kirk won her semifinal heat with a time of 1:07.60 and will be in the 100m breaststroke final. Her time was 3rd out of all the 16 semifinal swimmers. In preliminaries, about nine hours earlier, Tara swam a 1:07.92, 3rd out of 48 swimmers.

So, here's how the sched goes...

Tara -- 100m breaststroke final (starting grid), Monday, 10:15am Pacific time. Possibly to air live on CBC to those in the Puget Sound area who have Comcast cable, or the handful of readers in Canada that read us mainly for the Mariners.

For the record, the CBC aired Tara's semifinal swim about an hour after it happened, whereas NBC aired it about 12 hours after it happened. Her preliminary swim was not aired on television, as far as I know.

And I must say I have absolutely no idea about whether or not any races will air, and if so, when. Of course, I could dig around online for an extremely detailed program guide, but my computer is absolutely jacked right now. Something with Javascript and cookies which I can't seem to fix by messing with the Internet Options; basically as of three days ago, I can't send emails from my Yahoo account because the damn "compose," "check mail," and "send" buttons are all in Java. I can't even get into my three other email accounts. It's horrible.

But it's a little bit easier when two people you knew are gunning for Olympic hardware. Once again, good luck to both.

By the way, to those anxiously waiting (I'm sure that's approximately zero people), there's three more entries still to be revealed in the Sports and B's Hall of Fame. If you're a really really avid reader of this blog (once again, probably zero people), you should be able to guess who will take two of the three remaining entries. One should be an absolute giveaway. It's all up to me to get around to constructing the entries now, and it's good that Monday is an off day for the Mariners, let me just put it that way.

See y'all tomorrow.
[Edit ~11:55p -- Apparently Jeremy has notified me that NBC did air Tara's preliminary swim. I must have been caught up in the Mariner game or something.]

/

post written by David, published at 11:46 PM

BEAUTIFY BREMERTON

Tara Kirk will swim Monday in the 100 meter breaststroke final in Athens.

Willie Bloomquist goes 0-for-4 with 2 K's and had a key error in the 6th inning that led to a Hideki Matsui 2-run home run.

Beautify Bremerton, indeed.

Best of luck to Tara in Athens. David and I will definitely be on top of things on Monday. Will Tara win Gold? Will the Seahawks avoid the injury bug in Lambeau? Those items and more on an extremely busy Monday here at Sports and Bremertonians.

/

post written by Jeremy, published at 11:25 PM

COLLAPSE

This time, it wasn't the Mariners' bullpen giving the game away. The crowd of 46335 saw the Mariners put together the big inning and keep the Yankees from sweeping their first series in Seattle since 1990. The crowd was the eighth sellout this year, with six of those sellouts being against the Yankees.

Gil Meche took the mound for the Mariners hoping to do something similar to what he did in his last start against the Twins, you know, that eight-inning start upstaged by the revelations of the injuries to Rafael Soriano and Eddie Guardado. It looked a little bleak after the one-out Derek Jeter double in the first, but Meche got Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui both to fly out.

Ichiro led off for the Mariners as usual in the bottom of the first. As not usual, he rattled a ball off the windows of the Hit It Here Cafe, a 424-foot mash that gave the Mariners an early lead (SEA 1-0).

Meche's 3rd inning was similar to his 1st. John Flaherty hit the one-out double this time, and Kenny Lofton (fly to Jose Lopez at short) and Jeter (groundout to Lopez) were retired to end the inning.

Ichiro was a one-man show in the bottom of the third. He legged out an infield single with one out, stole second on the first pitch to Randy Winn, then stole third on the 2-0 pitch. The problem? Winn would foul off two pitches after being up 3-0 (yes, he swung on 3-0) and Kevin Brown caught him looking. Edgar Martinez then grounded out to third. In sum: runner on third with one out, so what?

Meche allowed a one-out double to Matsui in the 4th, and Bernie Williams is on fire against the Mariners. He singled to drive in Matsui and tie the score at 1-1.

There would be some more futility for the Mariner offense in the 4th. Raul Ibanez doubled to lead off, and Bret Boone dinked one into the outfield. The situation this time: runners on the corners with nobody out. Unfortunately, Scott Spiezio inexplicably was batting 6th today. Doubly inexplicable is the fact he was in the lineup anyway and is still getting at-bats. Why? Why is this? Anyway, he had a classic 2004 Spiezio moment, popping out to Jeter. Miguel Olivo followed suit with the same play, except he would redeem himself later. Boone stole second with Lopez at bat, which was rendered moot when Lopez walked anyway. Bases loaded, two out. Sounds like a great time to have Willie Bloomquist at bat, right? God, this team sucks. Of course, the best thing to do if you have the bases loaded with two out in a tie game is to swing on the first pitch. Wait, no it's not. Anyway, Bloomquist flew out weakly to Kenny Lofton to end the inning. He would have only three more moments of suckitude in this game.

The next Willie Bloomquist Moment of Suckitude would occur in the 6th. Gary Sheffield bounced a ball to Bloomquist at third, who uncorked a high throw toward first. Spiezio only got the tip of his glove on it, and it ended up in foul ground. Sheffield ended up on second. Two pitches later, Matsui hit a no-doubter of a smash to right (I knew this even with the behind-the-plate cam they had showing on that pitch) about five rows back of the Boeing ad to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead, which seemed like a pretty formidable one given the Yankees' bullpen reputation.

Then came the 7th. Miguel Olivo led off with a single to leftcenter. Olivo took off for second on the first pitch to Lopez. John Flaherty's throw went into centerfield, and Olivo took third on the play. Lopez doubled to left to score Olivo.

The Mariners had Lopez standing on second with nobody out. The following words (paraphrased) were spoken as my Dad and I were listening to the car radio...

Dave Niehaus: Willie Bloomquist is squaring around to bunt...
Dad: Why are they having him bunt?
Me: It makes no sense, unless you figure that's all he's good for.
Niehaus: If a base hit is going to get him home anyway, what's the point in bunting?
Ron Fairly: There's nobody out.
Dad: Isn't that like wasting an out?
Me (thinking hours later): Ichiro was up next. If Ichiro gets a base hit (he's been doing that a lot lately), it doesn't matter whether the runner is on second or third.

Okay, I'm counting this as a Willie Bloomquist Moment of Suckitude even though it's really Bob Melvin who put him into what I think is a stupid situation in the first place. Melvin gave him the bunt sign. Of course, Bloomquist fouled off three bunts, and of course, another problem is that you can't foul one off with two strikes. Boos rained down from the crowd, and I could only hope that most of them were directed just as much at Melvin as they were at Bloomquist. No numbskull moment of this magnitude would follow in the inning, however. Kevin Brown was pulled for CJ Nitkowski. Ichiro had a 3-0 count and ended up walking. Exit Nitkowski, enter Paul Quantrill. Quantrill today looked more like the Quantrill that played for Toronto years ago who the Mariners used to tee off against. Winn singled (tie 3-3). Edgar singled (SEA 4-3). Raul Ibanez singled to load the bases. Quantrill was pulled for Scott Proctor. Bret Boone walked (SEA 5-3). Spiezio had another classic 2004 Spiezio moment, whiffing. Miguel Olivo was the 10th batter to reach the plate, and he hit a two-run single to cap the scoring (SEA 7-3).

Yeah, I kind of cringed when Matt Thornton trotted out of the bullpen for the 8th. Luckily, he didn't totally suck, and no runners scored.

The last Willie Bloomquist Moment of Suckitude was when he was caught looking to lead off the 8th.

JJ Putz cut through the 8-9-1 hitters of the Yankee lineup with relative ease in the 9th.

Gameball: Miguel Olivo. 3-for-4 with 2 RBI and the dagger of a hit in the 7th. He can't block a ball in the dirt worth a damn, but if Miguel flashes some power every once in a while and has a game like this every couple weeks, I'm a tiny bit more willing to look the other way on those balls in the dirt. Of course, I'll expect more after spring training next year. Also, though not the gameball, Meche had another solid start, giving the bullpen a little bit of rest heading into the off day after the innings they've logged the last couple days.

Goat: Willie Bloomquist. 0-for-4, stranded four, struck out twice, couldn't bunt, threw the ball past Spiezio at first. Enough said. Without checking the boxscores of the other games, Scott Spiezio and Willie Bloomquist had to be the crappiest corner infielders to take the field for any team in the Majors today.

Off day for the Mariners tomorrow, with a six-game road trip to follow against the Royals and Tigers. I'm betting on a 7-for-11 series out of Carlos Guillen. What to do tomorrow, hmm...Tara Kirk swims at 10am in the 100m breaststroke final, but I sort of doubt anyone's carrying that live. As for other sports I've been watching, there's been a lot of crew racing coverage between NBC/CNBC/CBC along with fencing, softball, some baseball (the Canadians were whooping Taiwan today), and some 123-pound Turkish dudes lifting three times their weight in the clean-and-jerk. I also saw some badminton today, and holy crap, that's a far cry from the game we were playing in PE in high school. Damn, they were fast. In a related note, both injuries I had during my senior season of high school baseball occurred in PE. The first was when I hyperextended/jammed a toe on my left foot coming down from a jumpshot (basketball). The other was when I attempted some sort of jump/smash (badminton) and rolled the right ankle, which sucked because I was on the best offensive tear of my life at the plate. It cost me a couple of games. I then went on to suck brutally for my summer ball team. Seriously, it was sad. Couldn't hit for crap.

Hope you all enjoyed that last stream-of-consciousness paragraph, which started out as a look ahead for the Mariners, took an Olympic tangent, then devolved into normal self-loathing.